pop-up card

I know it’s not quite spring yet. And if you live in New England, you would know that it has been pretty cold, damp, and icy lately from some beginning of March snow showers. But, I was in the mood for making a spring themed card and put together this little pop up flower. I like the pink, green, and purple combination. The cardstock stack is called “Latte” and comes with a great spring color palette. The 48 sheet pack is on sale this week at Joann’s for $9.99…which will help you crank out tons of lovely spring pop ups and other paper crafts. Hope you like this card, and have a great weekend!

In my previous post, Pop Up Card: Be My Valentine, I showcased a little airplane carrying hearts strung along behind it, all on top of some pop-up clouds with the message “Be My Valentine.” I figured I would do a tutorial this evening on how you can make this card on your own. Bear with me – I’m not a professional photographer and I don’t have a professional camera. The good old iPhone 4S will have to suffice. I hope that this helps you make a pop up valentine of your own! 🙂 More tutorials coming soon!

Original Card That I Will be Re-Creating:

1. Start with project board / poster board. I love this stuff for the backbone of all cards because it is really sturdy material that adds much needed support to hold up the weight from the cardstock pop ups. Cut a 12 x 12″ square in half and then into two 6 x 6″ squares.

2. Cut a piece of 12 x 12″ cardstock in half so you have a 12 x 6″ piece and score in the middle (DO NOT CUT into 6 x 6″ squares). This piece will the background of the inside card where the pop up will be.

3. Use pencil to draw the outline of your clouds on white cardstock. I free hand draw and prefer x-acto knifing to cut out just about everything – but you can feel free to use scissors. If you have trouble drawing, it’s a good idea to google search “cloud cartoon,” then print the image and lay it on top of your cardstock and cut along the outline of shape using an x-acto knife.

4. Now let’s create the base of your pop-up clouds – we are going to use a tabletop pop-up mechanism. Cut a long strip of cardstock 2 cm thick (make sure it’s around 10-12cm long so you have enough). Then score four 2 cm lines, each 2 cm apart from each other and then one 1 cm line as shown below. Repeat this again so you have 2 strips of paper with scored 2 cm lines.

5. Now fold the strips along the scored edges and glue the small 1 cm flap inwards so you have a 3 dimensional square. Allow both squares to dry.

6. Do the same thing again with a 2 cm thick strip of paper but this time, have four lines each 1 cm apart and a fifth line 1/2 cm long. Score accordingly on 2 strips of paper and fold along the scored edges so you now have 2 small rectangle boxes.

7. Glue the 2 cm squares together on one side – and then place them along the fold of the card so that the middle of boxes lines up right in the fold. Glue along the bottom square faces to secure in place.

8. Glue the 1 cm rectangles together on on side – and then place them wherever you want. I put them in an off-center location to the right. These little rectangles will hold up the cloud that is a step down from the clouds atop of the larger squares. Once you have the right spot for them, glue on the bottom sides and secure in place.

9. Add glue to the tops of the squares and rectangles you have now securely glued and add your clouds where you want them.

10. Now you can punch out the heart balloon by using a paper punch and some metallic paper.

11. Cut the balloon string by trimming off a thin piece of ribbon. Glue it where desired.

12. Now cut out a shape of the airplane and hearts. Again, I love using the x-acto knife for this because it’s quick and much easier than finagling with the scissors. Write the words you want on each heart using a sharpie.

13. Once you have your shapes cut out, lay them down where you want them on top of the clouds.

14. Cut out strips of ribbon long enough to reach from the tail of the plane and in between each heart. Once you have everything just where you want it, secure with glue.

The Re-Created Card from the Tutorial:

15. Create the cover by cutting another strip of paper 12 x 6″ and scoring in the middle to fold and adhere to the poster board. Cut out paper and design a cover however you want. I used paper punches for the hearts and hand wrote “Be Mine.”

Well, I did it in kind of a rush all while watching the King of Queens and Jeopardy this evening, but did the two come out looking pretty similar? You can do it yourself easily at home and add your own creative flair to make it your own. Happy crafting! Hope you find this tutorial useful!

Hope you enjoy your New Year’s Eve! Here’s a Happy New Year card that follows the same template as the tutorial I posted earlier today. You can create one too using the same stack of card stock and pop-up box mechanism.

After receiving a couple requests, I have finally gotten around to creating my first tutorial. Now, please bear with me. It’s my first one and I hope that I can make them better over time. I was promising tutorials for some Christmas cards, but I always forget to photograph mid-card and end up snapping photos at the end to show the finished product.

Well how about some instructions for how you can make a pop-up card in 30 minutes? Ok so maybe my title is a little misleading, because this one took me about 41 minutes, but still…it’s under an hour! Plus, I had to pause and take photos in the middle of it. I deliberately set a timer so I could figure out just how long it would take. Once you get the hang of making one, you develop a knack for it and can crank them out pretty quickly and efficiently (assuming you have all the right tools!).

Here is what you will need:

1. 12″ x 12″ card stock (3-4 different sheets) – it’s good to choose complementing colors and have a mix of solids and patterns. Try some of the card stock that I purchased below (on sale at JoAnn for $9.99 per pack of 48 sheets!)

2. You will need some paper punchers (Corner Punch and Desired Shapes) – I couldn’t find my corner punch so I rounded some corners by hand and eyeing it, but the corner punch is quick, easy, and precise. I also chose to use the star paper punch for some decor on the card.

3. Scrapbook Glue or Double Sided Tape

4. Trimmer / Scoreboard

5. Paper Scissors

6. 12″ x 12″ poster board (optional) – I love using this stuff because it makes the cards hardcover and a little more polished looking.

How to Do It:

1. Cut the paper for the outside cover into 6 x 12″ and then in half so you have two 6″ x 6″ squares. (If you are using the 12″ x 12″ poster board, glue each separate 6″x6″ squares onto a separate piece of 6″ x 6″ poster board)

2. For the front cover, select another piece of card stock paper and cut into 6″ x 6″ squares. Cut one of the squares into 5.25″ x 5.25″ and then corner punch.

3. You can add another strip of paper however you want for an accent. Simply cut it using your trimmer. In this case, I used a blue stripe 2″ x 6″.

4. Punch out your stars using your paper punch for however many you want and simply glue all the pieces onto the front as desired.

5. Use a fine tip sharpie to write the message that you want on the front.

6. For the inside, use another piece of card stock and cut into 6″ x 12″ but DO NOT cut into 6″ x 6″

7. Score in the middle at the 6″ mark and fold

8. Glue the spread to the inside of the cover.

9. Select another color card stock for the inside. This will be the base of the pop up and you will use it for the pop up mechanism.

10. Fold the card stock in half, and cut into 6″ x 12″ then cut again so it is 5″ x 8″. Honestly, I usually just eye it, especially if I’m going quick, but if you don’t feel comfortable doing that, you can use your trimmer to measure and cut accordingly.

11. Now for the pop up. Draw the outline of your pop up boxes. This will create the same type of pop up that I used in the Christmas Pop Up Card showing the illusion of a pile of presents.

12. Fold the 5″ x 8″ paper in half and use pencil to sketch the lines above, leaving about 1/2 cm in between each box and 1/4 cm from the edges.

13. Cut along the horizontal lines as shown above, being sure NOT to cut the vertical lines.

14. Fold your boxes in so that they are bent along the vertical lines and it looks like the image below.

15. Open your pop-up and see the boxes / steps that are now created. You can now adhere this piece of paper to the card by using glue or tape.

16. Next, cut out (or use a paper punch to cut out), your desired inside shapes. I folded paper in half and cut out hearts, but a paper punch is even quicker and more precise.

17. Adhere the shapes to your boxes wherever you want them. I chose to cut out strips of paper to cover the front sides of my boxes (below).

I chose to cut slits in the front wall of my center box so I could insert and extra scrap piece of paper to make another image popping out further.

18. I then cut out a cloud / bubble shape and used it for a pop up “Thank you!” by folding it in half, handwriting the words on the front with sharpie and gluing it to the scrap piece of paper I had inserted as a support beam on the front center box.

19. I added a few extra hearts and some paper punched stars for a little extra something, and…voila! That was it.

This might sound like a lot when you read all of this at first, but once you practice your first one, you’ll be able to crank out the same one over and over again pretty quickly. The hardest part for me when creating a new card is figuring out the design. What colors? How is it going to look? What is going to pop up? HOW is it going to pop up?

Sometimes it requires more than one instance of trial and error using practice models of computer paper. But once the design is mastered, you have your template to work off of and can re-use the same template for any other types of cards in the future. It makes card making a lot easier once you already have a basic recipe under your belt. You can use this same pop-up box mechanism for just about anything – a thank you note, a pile of Christmas presents, or maybe even a city skyline for a wedding invitation? 🙂 haha yes, I’m hinting at my own wedding that is now in the works. You might be seeing a pop up wedding invitation from me soon!! (Once we secure a date of course!)

For one of my best friend’s 25th birthday, I decided to put together a very pink, girly, and cute looking pop up card. Most of the embellishments I made myself, but some were purchased and made by Jolee. The paper was actually a Target brand (very cheap) and not from my typical Stampin Up collection. They sell packs of metallic and pink colored-palette paper for less than $10. I’d definitely recommend checking out their scrapbook section for paper the next time you are there. But my usual go-to location is JoAnn Fabric or ordering from Stampin Up.

This card uses a V shaped pop up as the mechanism. Again, I will show you a how to for both the V shape and L shape in a tutorial that I am still putting together. Hope you enjoy this!

I created these surprise party invitations for my future father-in-law’s 65th birthday. A couple photos didn’t come out very clear, but I no longer have them in my possession to take addition photos. I wanted to show you how you can make a very simple pop up card.

I didn’t do much drawing or serious x-acto knife work here, and the pop up itself is very simple. It is an L shaped pop-up mechanism that creates a step coming out of the page. I created the balloons on the front cover, and many of the embellishments on the inside, on my own. This was mainly because I was too cheap to buy the already made scrap-booking birthday party embellishments by Jolee, and so I took a picture of the ones I liked on my phone in the store, and then used them as inspiration to make my own versions at home.

The pop-up balloons in the center are simply cut out using scissors and drawing the shape of a balloon and I added tiny strips of ribbon for the balloon strings. And as always, I hand wrote all the text in the card.

If you don’t have the time or patience to create your own embellishments, you can easily make these exact invitations by purchasing some ready-made scrapbooking party stickers, using some pinking shears for a little pizzazz or any other paper punching device to make the paper look pretty, and a couple sheets of paper. I’ll show you soon how to make the L shaped (as well as a V shaped) pop up card and how you can easily decorate a pop-up that will make any occasion fun and special.

At our office, one of our co-workers has been out on medical leave right before Christmas. To cheer him up over the holidays, I made this get well soon pop up card / book and had everyone in our office sign it to offer him their greetings. This was sent to him right before the holiday weekend. I hope he enjoyed it! There is a video of the card below.